Metropolitan area unemployment in March 2014

May 01, 2014

Unemployment rates were lower in March than a year earlier in 333 of 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 30 areas, and unchanged in 9 areas. Twenty-five areas had jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent and 59 had rates of less than 5.0 percent. The national unemployment rate in March 2014 was 6.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 7.6 percent a year earlier.

Eleven of the most populous metropolitan areas are made up of 34 metropolitan divisions, which are essentially separately identifiable employment centers. In March, Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, Massachusetts-New Hampshire had the highest jobless rates among the divisions, 10.1 percent. Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Maryland had the lowest division rate, 4.6 percent.

These metropolitan area data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see “Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment — March 2014” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-14-0699.